Absence
by bitter.sweet.stars
Summary: Sometimes, you just have to let go.


"Are you leaving?"

A black-haired teenager stopped dead in his tracks, his wand lying guiltily in his sweating palms, his bag spilled on the floor, essential bits and bobs rolling around inside the muddle of objects. James Potter glanced up, his sisters green eyes searching his face, her freckles standing out against the moonlight emitting through the lace curtains.

James had always hated those curtains.

"Lils, go to bed."

The thirteen year old shook her head stubbornly, her flaming hair rippling softly like a leisurely stream in the middle of the country. "No! Why are you leaving? What have we ever done?"

James turned to ace his little sister, and strode across the room in two easy steps, halting in front of her and lowering himself to eyelevel. "It's not you Lily, it was never you or mum or dad or Al. It's because I love her."

"Love who!" A tiny tear escaped Lily, glistening in the light, eliminating like a crystal vase lit from within.

"You know, Katie." A the utter of her name, the black-haired boy's eyes clouded over, and his face dissolved into goofiness, like he was placed under some sort of trance.

"But, why are you leaving?"

A hand was placed on the trembling girl, her brother's brown eyes staring into her emerald orbs. "Lils, I've just got to. I love Katie."

"But you don't love us?" The ginger exclaimed, more tears leaking out of the crinkles of her eyes, little droplets of emotion running smoothly down her smooth cheek.

"No Lily, I… I love you a lot, more than anyone I know. But I love Katie too. And frankly, we're moving away to America."

"How about school?"

"No school, we're just… leaving. You know her family, up-tight and strict, they'd never let her marry a wizard." James briefly remembered how Katie once met him at a field just a few leagues away from their country mansion. How her perfect body fitted against his own, slotting in like a coin in a casino machine.

"So? I'd never leave my family, even if I love Malfoy!" Lily cried, now clinging onto her brother, after hearing that he'd possibly never see her oldest brother.

But James only heard one word. Malfoy. "You're dating a Malfoy? Lily! A Malfoy! Not to mention you're only thirteen!"

Lily let out a guilty grimace, averting her eyes to an ant with a cookie crumb in its arms. "I'm not dating him. But I really, really do like him."

James couldn't believe his ears. His own sister, liking a Malfoy. "But Lily! He's bloody fifteen, not to mention a toe-rag! You know what his dad did to ours?" James shook his sister, lightly yet tense, hoping realization would enter her head like a bubble popping.

Lily shrugged his hands off her shoulder. "I'm aware of that, and it's not about me and Scorpius, It's about you! Don't go! Please!"

The boy's hands dropped from his sister, and he gazed sadly at her. "Lily. One day, you'll understand. Hell, maybe you do now." He was referring to Malfoy, even if it caused him great displeasure. Placing a hand on his sisters cheek, he wiped away a stray tear, a snail track on its way, leaving a silvery liquid train behind it.

An essence of evidence.

"Lily, I don't actually care who you love, or who you end up with. As long as you choose the right person. And I know Katie is the right person for me. So since her parents don't allow us to be together…" The teenager paused, his eyes like the shell of a cicada, brown and deep, yet transparent at the same time.

"No James! You don't understand! Mum and dad and Albus need you. I need you! Nana and Pops and Roxy and Freddy and Rose and Hugo and everyone else need you!" Sobbed the devastated Lily, driven to hysterics due to her brothers abrupt and supposedly secret plans.

"Shh! Shut up Lil's, someone will hear you!" James said in a hushed hiss, glancing fretfully at the door. "Lily," he added in a softer tone. "I need you to understand. Please Lily, this is all I'm asking for."

The younger girl sniffled, and wiped her runny nose on the back of her hand. "Will I ever see you again?"

A genuine smile pressed on James face and he himself wiped a tiny drop of salty water off his cheek. "I don't know Lily, I don't know." A grunt from Albus's room startled the two and James jumped, followed by his hurried movements to pack his bag. Slipping on a leather coat and scarf, he scanned the room sadly, touching Lily's shoulder briefly, he gave his only sister one blurred smile, his eyes hollow like a glass sphere yet a sense of excitement stood radiant in his brown iris's. The Potter girl was about to open her mouth, let out a yell. But she was cut short by those last words. Those last words indicating absence.

"Farewell Lily."

And then, he was gone.


End file.
